Events, Running AND Public Relations?

I feel like I learned more about the real-world event industry over the summer than I could ever learn in a classroom. My internship was with a company called Corporate Sports Unlimited. The company had three main divisions; Corporate Events and Meetings, The U.S. 10K Classic and the World Children's Center. Since I had such a wide variety of interests CSU allowed me to split my time at the internship between the separate divisions.

I began my internship working everyday in the events division. I got to attend all the event planning meetings, site visits, sales calls and much more. The VP of this division, Bob, made sure I was included in every step of the event planning process. Some days I would help research venues or organize activities for the events. Other days I would be out of the office meeting with our clients or actually working at events. One of my favorite parts was getting to go to so many events. CEM does so many events, and I had no idea corporations spent so much money to make their employees happy. Over the course of the summer I worked at family appreciation days, team building, picnics, carnivals, lunch parties, snow cone parties, ice cream socials and sponsor luncheons. CEM produces so many different types of events, and it was exciting for me to see how these events are planned and executed in the real-world.

The other divisions I worked for were The U.S. 10K Classic and The World Children's Center. The U.S. 10k is a huge (12,500 participants) road race in Cobb County on Labor Day. All the money raised from the U.S. 1oK goes toward the World Children's Center, which is the non-different profit division of the company. I really loved everything I got to do to help with the race because running is something I am extremely passionate about. It was really cool to work with my boss Stephanie in designing things for the race and helping her pull little details together for race day. I got to have some interaction with sponsors and see how some things work in the non-profit world. It was definitely a lot different then I expected.

About a month before the race (August 16th) the World Children's Center hosted a huge Gala for all the race sponsors. I got to do a lot of work helping prepare for this. It was neat because the Gala was similar to the athletic auction, except with a MUCH larger budget. They had hundreds of items for the auction, and tickets were $200 a seat. The event took place at the Cobb Galeria Center and the presentation was breathtaking. I was absolutely amazing at how lavish everything was, and it reminded me how much I love event planning. It felt great to know I had helped put so much together for this event.

Overall, I learned so much from my summer internship. I realized that doing PR for road races or triathlons is definitely something I am interested in. It was a great experience getting to work with an events division and a non-profit division all under the same company. It was just neat to combine so many things I am passionate about.....Events, Running AND Public Relations! What a great combo!

Oh, and if you don't have plans for Labor Day...check it out!