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Monster's Keep America Working Tour Photo: Courtesy of Monster.com
FROM NEW YORK The demand for jobs has been particularly high in 2009, and to accommodate the need, online job placement service Monster.com decided to revamp its touring career fair by producing it in-house and making 140 stops in the U.S. alone throughout the year. Monster Worldwide Inc. senior director of global events Phil Cavanagh oversees all of the company’s corporate events and trade shows and worked with his team to launch Keep America Working. He spoke with us about what Monster did to make the tour's rigorous schedule go smoothly and how career fairs seem particularly rewarding in this economic climate.
How is the Keep America Working Tour different than previous Monster.com job fairs?
Our old model was a straightforward career fair. Job seekers would come in, present resumes to recruiters and then leave. It used to be managed through a third party, but this time we decided to do it all in-house by our global events team.
We looked at people's needs this year, and we found that they're really just looking for information and a sense of empowerment. So we created the event with three components. It does have the recruiting area where employers interact with the job seekers, but we've added a theater presentation that has our career experts telling people how to stand out in the market and a kiosk area that shows attendees how to use the different career tools on Monster.com.
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A rendering of the main dining room of J&G Steakhouse Rendering: Courtesy of J&G Steakhouse
In a renewed signal that the nation's capital can't have too many steak restaurants, on July 8 chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten will open J&G Steakhouse on the ground level of the new W Washington DC hotel, which opens the same day, steps from the White House, in the former Hotel Washington.
Owned by Vongerichten’s restaurant group, Culinary Concepts by Jean-Georges, and designed by Los Angeles-based Dianna Wong Architecture & Interior Design, the 96-seat main dining room has 20-foot ceilings, massive arched windows, and wall and ceiling murals of cherry blossoms and Chinese coins. Two private dining rooms accommodate eight and 10 guests. In addition to grilled prime-aged steaks, the menu includes fresh seafood and organic vegetables from local farms.
After years as a corporate headhunter and résumé doctor, Stephen Viscusi has taken on the role of job retention expert. His most recent book, Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out on Top at Work, offers tips for people sweating out the uncertain job market.
How can people best prove their worth in the workplace today?
The most important thing is to establish a personal relationship with your boss, and your boss’s boss, so that they know you as an individual. The hiring process today sterilizes who we are, and it means that bosses don’t often know their staff. Nobody likes firing people, but it’s easier to fire someone you don’t really know.
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This story originally appeared in the most recent issue of our magazine; subsequently the subject, Liz Glover Wilson, left her job at iStar Financial to start her own event and fund-raising company for nonprofits, Elizabeth Rose Consulting. Before she left, Glover Wilson expanded her two staffers' job descriptions, and they were promoted and remain at the company. One of her first clients is the iStar Charity Foundation, and she'll be hosting its annual charity shootout in July. Here's our original story.
Liz Glover Wilson has spent nearly 13 years at iStar Financial, steadily increasing her presence at the company by centralizing its approach to meetings and events and rising to vice president of corporate events. Now that funds are being taken from her department, she approaches every project with an argument for its necessity, and so far, she’s making her point.
How She’s Already Proven Her Worth When Glover Wilson joined the real estate investment firm in 1996, planning its events was a one-woman job. She spent her first few years running 35 big events a year on a shoestring budget and eventually implemented a standard by which all iStar events are produced. Glover Wilson now has oversight of all meetings and event initiatives nationwide, so whether someone in her department or an administrative assistant plans them, they should deliver a consistent brand message and use her proven cost-saving methods.
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Cost Savings Nothing speaks to employers like the bottom line, so you should already be keeping track of how much money you’ve managed to save through negotiations, partnerships, and minor budget-saving adjustments.
“Even more than the economy today, people are worried about future money,” says Gen Art New York event director Kaki Stergiou. “Something I would have hired a freelancer for, I’m now hiring volunteers [to do], on the promise of partnering with them on something else. And for venues that are hesitant to give a low rate, I’ve gotten discounts for signing on to do two [events] in a year instead of just one.”
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FROM LOS ANGELES After Michael Jackson died suddenly on Thursday afternoon, BET worked fast to transform its already-scheduled awards on Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium into a tribute to the pop star. And, in addition to being what some would consider an appropriate format change for a show celebrating black entertainment, the modified broadcast was also a boon for the network: It was the top-watched cable telecast this year and BET's biggest audience ever, according to a press release from the network.
The live broadcast, hosted by Jamie Foxx, drew 10.65 million viewers. About 10 percent of televisions that were on during the broadcast period were tuned to the awards program, uncommonly high for a cable network, according to Nielsen Media Research findings cited in The Los Angeles Times.
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The Metropolitan Police Boys & Girls Club steel drum band at the Safeway National Capital Barbecue Battle Photo: Tony Brown/Imijination Photography for BizBash
The Safeway National Capital Barbecue Battle launched in 1992 as a way to celebrate southerners Bill Clinton and Al Gore winning the presidential election. The festival, which opened its 17th edition along Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday and Sunday, now sees around 100,000 visitors each year. And it’s truly a family affair, with activities for every age—from moon bounces to Ecco Domani-sponsored wine lounges—and even husband-and-wife teams joining the 150 volunteers. The eight-block-long event showcased 25 restaurants and food vendors, 50 barbecue teams, 20 sponsors and exhibitors, and a product sampling tent from title sponsor Safeway. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for children.
“The fact that it is the largest annual fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs in D.C. really helps a lot because people just throw their hearts into it,” said Suzanne Tubis, vice president of publicity for the Safeway Barbecue Battle. “Attendees come down and are willing to do a little extra with volunteering or fund-raising. All kinds of different synergies happen there.”
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A giant working cell phone at the Cricket launch Photo: Alison Klein for BizBash
Last Thursday at noon, with the temperature hovering in the low 90s, the sight of a freshly chiseled six-foot-tall ice sculpture in the shape of a K (for the capital K in the Cricket logo) drew the attention of some who passed by the Historical Society of Washington D.C. Nearby, a man passed out green snow cones. But for the lunchtime crowd, the center of attention was the 15- by 30-foot cell phone mounted on the side of two stacked black shipping containers branded with Cricket and Samsung logos.
Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., wireless provider Cricket teamed up with Samsung Telecommunications America to tout the launch of Cricket service in the Washington area by bringing to town what was dubbed "the world’s largest cell phone." The walk-through promotional kiosk and giant phone, which first appeared in March in Chicago, represented a $1 million investment in development and fabrication by the two companies.
Performers break dancing at Cisco's gala Photo: David Fox
FROM BOSTON Global networking technology company Cisco held its annual Partners Summit in Boston June 2 through June 4, when it looked for ways to wow its sales partners on a significantly reduced budget.
"The whole program was scaled down from years past," said Richard Toscano, director of special events at George P. Johnson, who worked with Cisco to plan the summit. "In the past we’ve had 4,000 to 5,000 attendees—this year it was cut down to 2,000."
A smaller event meant a more exclusive crowd. "We strategically scaled back to a more executive level," said Stacy Glavinos, event program manager at Cisco. "We went from 43 percent executives last year to 59 percent, so everything had to be tweaked to that executive level."
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Shannon Gerber is director of events management for Home Depot’s Atlanta headquarters. With the company since 2002, she was initially hired to oversee enterprise-wide events such as the annual managers’ and shareholders’ meetings. Over the years, though, she realized smaller meetings were falling through the cracks when her team would be called to do damage control for contracts or commitments negotiated by administrative staff or other non-pros. In late 2007, Home Depot rolled out a pilot program, EventsTHD, to capture and manage smaller meetings and events. A year in the making, EventsTHD was rolled out companywide in February 2008.
What was the impetus to put the plan in place?
For me, it was being a part of so many different organizations, like Meetings Competitive Advantage Forum and the National Business Travel Association Groups and Meetings Committee. It’s learning from people around you. We recognized that there was a need to centralize the process, which would provide greater cost savings. It was just finding the time to focus on it and make it a priority.
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Registration Is Open for Our Chicago Expo August 20
