Week Two
After having a great first week, I wanted to have an even better second week. I had overcome my shyness and was ready to make my mark at the Chamber. Even though my second week had way more events and meetings to attend, I couldn’t wait to tackle them all!
From Monday to Wednesday, I had at least one meeting a day. I really enjoyed attending the meetings because I found it interesting how community business leaders would present problems and concerns in the business community and discuss possible solutions.
Every day of the week was important, but the most impactful day was Thursday. The Plano Independent School District (P.I.S.D.) recently appointed a new superintendent, Sara Bonser. The Plano Chamber wanted to introduce her to the local business community so they held a meet and greet for her at the Chamber office on Thursday.
During the first half of the event I was working the nametag table with Ryan. After a while I went to listen to the superintendent’s speech. The speech was good. I could tell she was very passionate about children and wanted to fulfill the role to the best of her abilities. The audience gave her a warm reception and the event went swimmingly. While I was at the event, I remembered all the little things that made the event go well. From the flyers Katie had designed and distributed to the nametags Ryan printed and assigned me to make. It was overall a fascinating event and I really enjoyed meeting some of the people there. After “Meet the Superintendent”, the week was partially over – ending my second week on the job!
SK Kiero and Ryan Minter managing the Registration Table at the Meet the Superintendent event.
Week Three
My third week was a little different then my first two weeks. Since Fourth of July was on the upcoming week the Chamber scheduled a lot of events the week before. The week started off busy as Monday had my normal weekly staff meeting. I did a couple small tasks for the staff, like helping Jennifer file some papers and Christine with mailing invoices. I also helped transport some boxed donations with Ryan to the P.I.S.D building for the new 2018-2019 teachers welcome bags.
SK Kiero and Ryan Minter deliver boxed donations to Plano ISD for the New Teacher Bags.
Monday was also Jennifer’s birthday celebration so we held a special staff lunch for her. Judy asked me to pick up chocolate strawberries from Market Street for her birthday lunch. There was some confusion on my side. Long story short, I had to make two trips back and forth to pick up the strawberries. But the strawberries eventually arrived and the lunch went well!
Jennifer Ruhman celebrates her birthday with chocolate-covered strawberries!
Tuesday was also pretty busy because there were two meetings and a ribbon cutting for me to attend. The first meeting I attended was a Woman’s Division Board Meeting with Ryan. Woman’s Division is a division of the Chamber that focuses on helping woman get better involved and connected in the Plano business community. Right after that I attended a ribbon cutting ceremony with Christine at the newly-renovated Homewood Suites by Hilton North Dallas-Plano. The event was really nice. I received a full tour of the building and met some of the hotel directors. I even met the Hilton Duck!
Plano Chamber Members and Ambassadors celebrate the Grand Opening of Homewood Suites by Hilton with a Ribbon Cutting!
SK Kiero poses with the famous Hilton Duck at a Ribbon Cutting.
The last three days of my third week was full of events. On Wednesday, we had “Maximize your Membership” and “Success in Business”. Both events where interesting; however, I found “Success in Business” more fascinating as the topic was about the generational gap many businesses face.
On Thursday, we had the main event of the week with Plano First Quarterly Luncheon at the Marriott. Every four months, the Chamber plans Plano First luncheon and Thursday were the summer event. The event was very nice and elegant; in attendance where some of the big corporate leaders of North Texas, as well as many local small business owners. The event included networking as well as moderated discussion between three leading leaders of Plano retail development. During the event I reconnected with some people I had met at previous Chamber events as well as some new faces. For example, I met LaMonte Thomas, Market President of Cigna North Texas and Oklahoma. His organization has been so gracious to fund my internship this summer. It was nice that I could give him a proper thank you for his company’s contributions. Overall, I had a great time at the event and really enjoyed my time there.
As my week came close to the end, I had two more events for the week. There was the usual Business Interchange the Chamber holds every Friday plus ONE Plano. The only problem was that I had lost my voice and could barely talk so I had to skip Business Interchange. I did attend ONE Plano which was a very nice meeting. ONE Plano is a meeting for nonprofits to discuss ways to manage their nonprofits. The meeting wasn’t too long, but it would have been the last event I would attend before my work week was over.
My third week was very busy and somewhat crazy, but I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed going to the events and meeting the people there. Overall I would consider my third week a very successful week as I finished all my tasks and tagged along to most of the events.
Week Four
Week four was by far the most relaxed week of my internship. For one, we had finished all the major events the previous week. Plus, Fourth of July was on a Wednesday dividing the week in two. We had the usual staff meeting on Monday and an Events Team Meeting (or “Dream Team Meeting”) on Tuesday. Wednesday was Fourth of July and we got the day off. For Fourth of July, Katie and I created a nice picture to remind the members we would be closed that day via Facebook.
The image wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July on Facebook.
In preparation for low attendees at the weekly BI due to the holiday, the Chamber came up with the idea to incorporate a patriotic theme for the week’s BI Meeting. Ryan and I filmed a very patriotic video to help attract more Chamber members to the meeting.
SK Kiero and Ryan Minter pose after their patriotic Business Interchange video.
Conclusion
Overall I had a great first half of my internship. I’m happy with everything I have learned and experienced so far. However I know there is still so much I can learn, master, and experience. As I start to approach the end of my internship, I know I’m running out of time. However, I plan on taking advantage of every second.