Mel Hespe has always known she was wanted to be in events, securing a traineeship in the industry at just 15 years old.
Now, Mel is an senior event manager at Events With Moore, a full service agency offering event management, group travel, production and creative services.
Get to know Mel Hespe in our Meet the Planner Q&A below:
How/when did you start in the events industry?
From a young age I always knew that I wanted to be an event manager. At 15 I secured a traineeship as an event stylist whilst studying tourism and events at TAFE through high school. Post graduating, I landed my first full time job as a junior event coordinator. That was eight years ago and I am still working in the industry full time with no plans to go anytime soon.
What is the most memorable event you’ve been part of?
Most definitely the group of 500 we took to Tokyo a few years back. The group took the bullet train from Tokyo down to Kyoto, completed a city tour, had an amazing dinner before heading back to Tokyo – all in the same day!
People told us it was near impossible to pull off and our team did it and the attendees absolutely loved it. Tokyo being the crazy city that it is did throw some challenges our way, which made the end result all the more rewarding. The opportunity to be part of a collaborative and supportive team working on a program of this scale was awesome!
If you could change one thing about the events industry, what would it be?
Being able to educate corporate clients more on the value of face-to-face connection. Quite often event spend is one of the first to be reduced when budgets are being tightened so if I could change that, I definitely would.
You really can’t underestimate the power of people coming together. That is when the magic really happens!
What is one piece of advice you’d give someone entering the field?
Experience is key. The more experience you can gain from volunteering, an internship or working casually the better set up for success you will be. It is a very ‘hands on’ industry and you have to be willing to do the hard yards.
It can be a tough industry to crack without experience – so I would recommend showing that you are willing to learn and are committed to your career and you will go far!
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt during your career?
I have been fortunate enough to have had great learning opportunities throughout my career but I think the most important is the power of relationship building with both customers and suppliers.
Having a great rapport with our partners means we are able to form solid trust and allows us to have a more collaborative approach to create inspiring experience with our clients.
What is your dream event or incentive destination?
Africa or Las Vegas.
