Spring 2018
CEO Luncheon & Board of Regents Dinner
February 7, 2018
The CEO Luncheon was held in one of the meeting rooms upstairs in the Memorial Student Center. This event was a meeting and networking event. The Board of Regents Dinner was an event being held in the Bethancourt Ballroom in the Memorial Student Center. It was for the Texas A&M Board of Regents members who were receiving medals for their work with the University.
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I assisted Mr. Mckinley with delivering the luncheon designs in the morning as well as the designs for the Board of Regents in the afternoon. It was another interesting time delivering to the MSC because having two events there meant we had a lot of designs to bring over from the floral lab, plus plants for the stage that the Board of Regents would be using as a backdrop for the medals being awarded. You would think because we did the Board of Regents dinner the year prior we would be able to set up quickly and just make improvements from problems encountered last year. Wrong. The arrangements were similar to the year prior, so was the stage set up, but outside where the medals would be on display the client made it difficult because no matter where we placed the plants she did not like them. Plus we also thought that the plants would be in the way of people trying to admire the medals. After about 20 minutes of rearranging the plants we were finally able to come up with a display that would please the client. Assisting with this event taught me that sometimes you will have a client who will make you rearrange things multiple different ways and ask everyones opinion before deciding that they liked it the way it was to begin with. I also learned the importance of being patient with your client.
CEO Luncheon & Board of Regents Dinner Design
February 6, 2018
Texas A&M Student American Institute of Floral Design were in charge of executing the centerpieces needed for both the CEO luncheon being held in the Memorial Student Center as well as the dinner being held in the Bethancourt Ballroom. Having the opportunity to create these pieces allows students to expanded their floral design skills and gain experience with big events.
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It was very interesting assisting with these events because I had helped with the Board of Regents dinner the year before, so it was interesting to see how the designs were going to be this year compared to the previous year. At first I was put in charge of designing and helping other members design the centerpieces for the CEO luncheon. It was a time consuming task because we had to ensure that all the foam was covered on all eight centerpieces. After we finished the luncheon centerpieces we assisted in creating the centerpieces for the Board of Regents dinner. The centerpieces for this were a little easier to create because there were more foliages to cover the mechanics with, but the hard part was getting everything into the foam because it was very low in the container. Having helped with this event the year prior I learned that whoever is in charge of planning the Board of Regents dinner really likes tulips and having the centerpieces be whimsical and give a spring feel to the dinner, even though it happens in the beginning of February.
Horticulture Career Fair
February 28, 2018
The Horticulture Career Fair is a networking event held in February every year for Horticulture majors and minors trying to find an internship or career in their prospective horticulture field. The career fair has breakfast for the companies as well as an opportunity for horticulture students to take a company to lunch.
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For the career this year I assisted setting up tables and chairs the afternoon before the career fair. Once all the chairs and tables were set up I helped put out all the place cards on the correct tables for the companies that would be coming the next day. Once this was done I was told to make sure that the popcorn machine worked, so I had to move it to the spot it would be in for the actual career fair and then turned it on to make sure that it would work correctly. Once I finished doing that I wiped off the tables and chairs that I had previously set up. I was sad I would not be able to help the day of the career fair because I had so much fun last year assisting with the set up and directing the companies that attended. Assisting with career fair taught me that even though you plan the same event year after year and make adjustments when you can things will likely still go wrong, so you have to be prepared to adjust. There we'rent enough chairs for all the companies so some companies were just going to have to use the cushioned seats in the atrium because we couldn't find any extra chairs to give them.
Jim Johnson Bowl
March 6, 2018
The Jim Johnson Bowl is a time floral competition honoring Mr. Jim Johnson, former Benz School of Floral Design at Texas A&M University Director. Members of the American Institute of Floral Design (AIFD) come from all over the nation to compete in this prestigious competition to showcase their designing creativity and ability. Designers have a limited amount of time (45 minutes) and flowers to create their designs. There were three categories Tropical, Funereal, and Floral Jewelry.
At the Jim Johnson Bowl I assisted the judges in transporting the design created to the judging room along with turning in their score cards for each design. Once the designs were judged I would then take them back into the lobby area so spectators of the competition could admire the pieces made. Moving the designs from the design table to the judging room was very stressful because some of the pieces were very delicate, and if you accidentally moved or knocked something out of place it could cause a designer to lose. When moving every arrangement I made sure I had a good grip and that I used both hands when carrying it. I am so glad I was able to assist with this event because It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of. I got to learn new design techniques from these amazing designers. Which has helped me think differently when creating my own designs in class after seeing the creative and innovative techniques that these designers used to create a one of a kind design.