Katie Janoski, 23, works in Washington, D.C. as Conference Services Coordinator, Partnership for Public Service. As a 2018 40 Under 40 honoree, Janoski discusses her passion for the events industry.
Connect with Janoski on Instagram.What I Do: At the Partnership, my conference services work falls into three main buckets. On one hand, I receive all requests for space for our internal programs and map out the most efficient use of our conference centers. I also am the point of contact when our internal leadership development programs need to rent space at external venues. Finally, I manage our conference rental program, which includes serving as the main point of contact when an external organization wants to rent our space.
How I Got Here: I started as an intern working on our federal leadership development programs at the Partnership in January 2017 and was hired on full-time in early August as the Conference Services Coordinator. During my internship, I realized how much I liked processes and details, including coordinating logistics and creating efficiencies in the planning phases for events. When the opportunity came up to do that at the Partnership on the Operations team, I jumped at a chance to use these skills full-time.Greatest Career Accomplishment: One of my favorite accomplishments was converting a client who came to us when their original venue cancelled on them into a repeat client who we now do multiple events per year and several thousand dollars of business with. It took a lot of time and relationship management to get it right, but they’ve written us into the next three years of the budget as their primary venue!Impressive Stats: Last calendar year, I exceeded our rental revenue goal by 10 percent.
Specific Improvement I’ve Made: Rental business is not the main focus of our organization, but I have created a client database and a marketing plan to ensure that our rental space stays competitive with other venues in the area.
What I am Working on Now: We’re in the process of redesigning how our organization does program graduations, and that involves every aspect of my job—are we going to hold them in our space? Does renting external space make more sense? Being able to think strategically about how we use our space vs. when we use external space has been illuminating and fun!
What I Do Outside of Work: Outside of work, I spend my time volunteering in a community garden in D.C. and napping with my cat, Forrest.
