Week Two: Extra Set of Hands

My second week on the job was one filled with both chaos and an immense amount of learning. While I am still getting used to working in a large corporate office and navigating the dozens of floors of the building, I found that this week I learned a lot just from listening and watching my boss and team interact with one another and other co-workers. I believe strongly in the importance of listening and taking in everything around me, and I am finding that to be particularly important at The New York Times.

When I started my internship, my team was busy working on an event in Cannes, France in which The New York Times has dinners and speakers for CEOs of major companies from Google to Deloitte. Since the event started on Friday of last week, we had a crazy week of ensuring that all of the components from menus to DJs to venue contracts were all finalized before the event. While a lot of the major elements of the event had been organized several months ago, there were still small items like menus, name tags, branding and guest count that had to be organized before Friday. At the beginning of the week my boss was running from one floor to another talking to members of the creative team to create menus and calling the venue to ensure they have enough table settings. Since I had not been with the team during the initial planning of the event I felt a little lost and useless. However, I sat attentively in meetings while taking notes and taking in all that was happening around me.

As the week progressed I was given other tasks for the Cannes event, such as cross checking the names on the name-tags with the names on our guest list before the name-tags went to print. The crazy part about the Cannes event is that there are four different events that The New York Times is in charge of. That means four different guest list, four different menus, four different name-tags, dare I go on. It was impressive to watch my boss and co-worker keep these events organized and stay calm throughout the entire week while I was still struggling to remember the names of each event.

As Thursday and Friday rolled along, the tasks for Cannes had a strict deadline and our team was under pressure to finish everything by the end of the day on Friday. I was given tasks such as cutting signs and menus to size and cross-checking names before sending name-tags to print. While on the surface level these tasks seemed meaningless and small, they are really important components to the event. I knew that if I could cut menus while my boss was squaring away the contract for the venue then I was taking one thing off her already full list of tasks. After all, I am an extra set of hands and part of the team. When we all work together we can accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently.

On Friday all of the items for the event had to be finished and ready to ship by 4p.m. and around 2:45p.m. we ran into a slight problem. As I was cutting menus I realized that they were not centered on the piece paper. I had to run downstairs with the half cut menus and explain to the creative team what was wrong with them and how to fix them. Once they were reprinted I had to quickly cut all of them and run them to my boss as she packed them and sent them on their way by 4p.m. After looking back at this hectic hour I found that it was incredibly important for me to stay calm throughout the entire process. In the event planning world there can be many complications that arise during the planning and execution of an event and planners need to remain calm and address the situation before making any drastic moves. Additionally, I found that effective communication is key not just in the event world but also working in an office with several different teams.

Having a team that communicates well with one another is extremely important. And by lending a hand whenever necessary, even if it means cutting menus in half, I know that I am helping my team to accomplish our larger end goal.