National Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Learning Conference were held from 16 to 17th April 2018, between 9:00 a. m. to 6:00 p. m. The venue for the conference was Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel & Suites, Richmond Hill. The category of the event lies under the Education and Training. The organizer for the event was the Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery (CIRR). The full conference fee for two days and one day was $400 and $235, respectively. The fee also includes the breakfast, lunch, and accommodation.

There were 100 delegates invited in that conference, whereas, visitors were nearly 250 who actually attended the event, as per conversation with Winnie. The purpose for sorting out National Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Learning Conference was to offer a remarkable expert development encounter for educators, principals, and senior administrators interested in expanding in common understandings and effective practice to maximize understudies learning. Sessions were designed to exhibit sound learning theory together with instructional prescribed procedures for K-3 teachers, literacy consultants and coaches, resources, specialized curriculum instructors and early childhood educators. Reading Recovery is an early intervention program provides children in Grade-1 who are struggling most with reading and writing with one-on-one lessons tailored to their needs and provided by given an extraordinarily prepared instructor. The primary target audience or attendees of this event were:

• Reading Recovery professionals
• K-3 classroom and ELL teachers
• Literacy teachers and coordinators
• Reading specialists
• Literacy coaches and coordinators
• Curriculum and language arts specialists
• School librarians
• Special education professionals
• School administrators, principals, superintendents, and psychologists

The secondary target audience includes;

• Mothers
• Home tutors, mentors

PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS

The challenges faced by Winnie while planning her departmental tasks (i. e. Catering and Convention Service), in order to organize the conference were co-operating with other departments every now and then, last minute changes like addressing food allergies, large variety of dietary restrictions, accommodation preferences and tight timeline to execute event, especially, complete menu replacement turned out the battling situation for the service team. The other platform was keeping the team motivated to continue producing high volumes of food while maintaining the highest degree of quality and being careful to keep the expectations within client budget. Similarly, truly understanding the needs in terms of quantities and consumption of the guests attending the conference was also difficult. According to Winnie, her event planning process started from the research where she went through the basic details of the client’s demographic; where their previous conference was hosted and takeaways from those experiences. In this case, it was the same hotel, so it was way easier for her to gather the required information. Secondly, knowing the client’s requirements, expectations and providing the planning recommendations accordingly. Thirdly, she worked to finalize menu details at least 10 days before the event and required F&B final guarantee 72 hours prior to the event.

After that, she did the follow up with the planning document submitted by the planner, outlining most of the details required and then suggesting accumulating questions or changes so that there will be no more one e-mail a day with the exception of last minute change. She also assigned one person to coordinate everything in order to stay on target. Finally, deliver what she promised to the client. The experiences and learnings she has after organizing the 2018 National Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Learning Conference that different clients have different expectations and you have to provide recommendation matching with their requirements. Moreover, preparing the agenda for the entire execution process and managing the allotted budget for the two days event. Additionally, always account for few extra vegetarian, gluten-free options and make sure everything is labeled with the name of the dish and ingredients to avoid unhappy eater. Most importantly, establish an open communication with planners so that, everybody should be on the same page and able to understand what the event is looking to achieve as well as, meeting the internal demand and expectations. Tracking the event when the last minute changes arise. Last but not least, know your eaters, try to gather as much information you can collect about them in the registration process in order to avoid the last minute changes in the menu. In general according to Winnie, stay cool, calm and confident as there will be always so much to do, in so little time that it will be easy to lose focus if your mind is not relaxed.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

In my opinion, Winnie has superior organizational skills as she always keeps into consideration that everything should be seemingly choreographed so that each step of the event goes off smoothly. She seems to be a very positive leader who tries to keep her team motivated in order to get things done effectively and efficiently. Other than that, she has a pretty good insight to reduce the last minute changes esp. in terms of food preferences, where she suggests that collecting the adequate information in terms of menu options about the upcoming guests in the registration process will be highly beneficial. Winnie’s role in the event includes researching, sourcing, and holding meeting with prospective and potential clients, coordinating teams. She also keeps on discovering the culinary delights as a part of her creative process.

According to Winnie, her business is just as much about the people as it is about food being the Senior Catering and Convention Services Manager. For her, quality and service are key but learning to educate her customers on the market she is in is very important. She also believes in a keen sense of observation is one of the greatest attributes every event professional should have. In her perspective, giving the client memorable experience is always considered good, but great memory can sometimes create the great expense. So keeping track with a budget is crucial among all. She said, “No matter what kind of event it is, there will be definitely budget constraints in comparison to the client’s expectations”. I learned a lot of practical life lessons from Winnie which will be highly helpful in my event career life and other future endeavors. It’s been a tremendous opportunity to get the event understandings from her experiences and point of view.