Nikole Dunlop Email & Phone Number

Calgary, Ab, Ca

I am currently working with the Real Estate Forums team at Informa Connect as a Conference Project Manager, which includes working as Operations Manager, as well as working in front-facing Customer Service.• Multi-tasking - As apart of my role, I manage eight events each year from start to completion - with attendance averaging 500-2500 attendees. There are many elements of an event that I work on - on top of my work, I am consistently juggling at least three events at the same time.• Operation Management - I am managing venue, food & beverage, AV and staffing for certain events - this allows me to broaden my skillset. Attention to detail is incredibly important in this new responsibility, as it can make or break an event.• Customer Service - Consistently working with speakers and sponsors to ensure their experience working with our team is always a positive one - ensuring I respond to emails and phone calls in an appropriate amount of time.• Team Player - I work alongside the Content Producers and Sales Managers to ensure every deliverable is accomplished. I also have trained over three Project Managers, who have been incredibly successful in their roles, as well as onboarding new staff in other departments.

I executed 10 shows a year with over 800 exhibitors for Tier One shows and over 400 exhibitors for Tier Two and Three shows.• Multi-tasking – I worked on at least five shows at one time. This gavev me the ability to multi-task and work with exhibitors from numerous North American (Canada & U.S.) shows in parallel. The ability to multi-task is paramount to being able to forge through my workload efficiently and effectively. Every exhibitor deserves to feel that they are my only valued client; I enjoy supporting them towards a successful outcome of their marketing efforts at the conventions.• Time Management – I understood which show needed my focus; in addition ability to be flexible to change in this quick paced environment – helped me deliver fast and on time. As an example of scale; my tier one show has over 800 exhibitors.• On-Site Organization – Preparation for the role on site was key to making both my clients and my own on site experience enjoyable and stress free. The move in process incurs over 50 exhibitors at one time trying to move in their items. I worked with a trade show floor map (produced by the operation team) showing different load in zones. It was my responsibility on site to make sure that the move in is adhered to, since there are a lot of moving parts and not only our team; I work with convention centre loading dock staff to ensure that exhibitors move in and move out in order of location on the trade show floor.• Ability to Work Under Pressure – I enjoyed working under pressure and pride myself on meeting my many, and non-negotiable, deadlines.• Customer Service – I was extremely client and customer centric. I have over 15 years of experience in a customer focused environment.

I worked for Informa as a freelancer and also served an internship with the Real Estate and Construction teams during college, where I graduated my Special Events Planning program.• Time Management – I supported the content and operational team managing real estate conferences. Being able to manage time and prioritization is an important element of working on this team, especially as in delivering 14 – 15 conferences annually team members are all working at different stages of the conference development and content process. A found a good understanding of what should take precedence is key to being able to deliver optimally and effectively for all involved.• Accuracy – This was a very important expectation; for example, managing prospect attendee and sponsor marketing lists for an inaugural conference in New York to managing a waitlist for an established sold out Montreal Real Estate Forum. In addition, I supported others to ensure accuracy; for example, assisting with marketing brochures, onsite schedules and speaker biographies before these are taken to print.• Fast Learning & Resourcefulness – The role was to support to a busy team – I recognized that I should take up as little valuable team time as possible. For example when a team member explains how to undertake a task, I make sure that I completely understand what is expected to avoid my asking them to repeat themselves. In addition, I would find answers to questions myself without drawing on the team resource especially during crunch times.• Customer Centric – I telemarketed for early-bird deadlines and calls regarding the Montreal waitlist outcome and was on-site for front line with attendees – understanding the importance of guests having the best possible experience.• Ability to Work Under Pressure and to Deadlines – I enjoyed working in a fast-paced environment and meeting non-negotiable deadlines that are intrinsic when working in events.

Working at the Willow Stream Spa helped enhance many of my abilities, as well as learn key skills that allowed me to be a better teammate and worker for the spa.• Initiative – I was confident to act on appropriate initiative and importantly understanding when to revert to my manager for guidance.• Commercial Awareness – I understood the business contribution of the spa to the overall profit of the business – upselling services and promotion of post service products is key to my deliverables.• Organizational Skills – I managed busy schedules and ensuring that the therapists and aestheticians are allocated their appointments based on applicable seniority. I was also responsible for guest itineraries and ensuring they were correct.• Communication Skills – I had excellent communication skills; email, by phone guests and in person to ensure their experience is the best it could possibly be.• Informative – I memorized the spa menu and fees and being able to speak intellectually and accurately to guests about these without hesitation.

At a capacity of almost 500 guests, I was the front line ambassador for the Bow Valley Grill - this was a great opportunity to expand my customer service skills, interpersonal awareness, flexibility, and management in a different setting than in the past. I found that my ability to multi-task and spot opportunities helped to manage unexpected guest traffic and expectation. • Guest Satisfaction – I maintained a professional and welcoming demeanour towards guests, despite the pressure. The objective is to guide and assist them in achieving what they want vs. what is possible to the standard they expect. In addition, I assisted when they experienced challenges and sent them away satisfied even when the Bow Valley Grill was unable to accommodate their request.• Organizational Skills – I made sure the restaurant is well organized and was constantly on top of monitoring table availability – the restaurant’s flow through of paying guests depended entirely on me to manage to maximum orders put through.• Informative – Guests expected me to know not only answers questions about the restaurant, but also the hotel, tours, what to see. Being on top of this kind of information ensured that I rarely had to get back to guests, but could provide an immediate answer to their questions.• Responsibility – I was responsible for managing reservations, making judgement calls and ensuring that guests are seating at the correct table. Also assigning tasks to hosts whilst on duty.• Ability to Work Under Pressure – I had the ability to work well and seamlessly under pressure is a key attribute to this role.

During high school and college, I worked part-time in a front facing customer service role that provided me with opportunity to develop a number of key and transferable skills.• Customer Service – I was front line dealing with sales, customer queries and complaints calls for; I gained interpersonal awareness, the ability to remain calm and polite under stressful conditions, understanding the importance of comprehensive product knowledge, tact, negotiation and influencing skills, and problem solving.• Communication Skills – I enjoyed working with people and for people and am an excellent communicator in that respect.• Ability to Work Under Pressure – At sale times, it was a necessity to be effective and efficient in managing long queue of often stressed customers at my checkout.• Responsibility – I produced an appreciation of the importance of self-management, self-presentation, being punctual, flexible, working quickly, accurately and to deadline.• Numeracy – I had an ample amount of experience on checkout, dealing with cash, credit cards, store cards, gift cards, etc., stocktaking, effective in calculating appropriate discounts during sales, one off discount days, and for damaged items.

Diploma, Special Event Planning

Digital Media Arts