Dana Schultz - Mountbatten Program
#mountbattenlife

Dana Schultz

Dana Schultz

A Day In The Life

Program:  London

Intake:  August 2007

Current Role:  Corporate Conference, Meeting and Event Planner, Syneos Health

Connect

My Alarm Goes off…around 6:30am as I drag my butt out of bed to get to the gym for a quick run before my day begins. No matter where I am in the world – if I’m going into the office, working from home or on-site at an event, I have to work out in the morning or else I’ll never do it!

I’m Responsible For… managing logistics for the North American conferences, meetings and events at Syneos Health. This could be anything from a small exhibit booth at a regional conference to a 250-person client networking event to a 400-person multi-day internal leadership meeting.

I Got The Job…by not being afraid to speak up about my career goals. I had been working for Syneos Health for about 2 years in Finance but was taking courses in Event Management on the side. When the time was right, I approached my then-manager about my interest in Corporate Events, and she was kind enough to introduce me to her contacts in the Marketing group. I was extremely fortunate to be able to do a complete career 180 pretty easily.

My Typical Day… is never quite the same as the day before. If I am on-site at an event, I get up earlier and go to bed later than all the attendees in order to manage logistics, including checking food & beverage, supervising meeting room set-ups, managing registration and dealing with the unavoidable last-minute changes. If I am not on-site, then I typically spend most of my time on calls strategizing and planning for our next big event.

The Culture Of My Workplace…is extremely flexible, which is one of the main perks of the job. We are a large global company, so my team members sit in offices all over the world which means I can work from home whenever I want. That comes in handy after I’ve just gotten off a redeye flight!

My Most Memorable Work Moment…was probably my first successful large conference event, which took place in Vienna, Austria. I learned so much and was able to do some sightseeing too. Aside from that, I had many memorable work moments during Mountbatten including my company’s annual Charity Day when we had visits from many celebrities, including Prince Harry.

My Role Models are…my father and grandfather when it comes to business. They both became very successful and I have turned to them many times throughout my career for advice.

The Most Challenging Part of My Job…is managing expectations for all of our different stakeholders. Sometimes they have no idea how much work is involved to change a graphic on a conference booth or to move a meeting location.

The Best Part of My Job…is being able to learn and grow in a career I’m passionate about, all while traveling the world!

After Work… I cook dinner with my husband and we watch tv together. We got married six months ago and it still feels weird to have “free time” after planning a wedding.

Plan B: If I wasn’t doing this, I would… love to say I’d be doing something like working as a travel journalist or food blogger, but I would probably still be working in Finance. It’s a great career path, just not for me!